Volume 40, Issue 2, August 2023, Pages 397–411
Radhika Singh1, Thai Thi Minh2, Nicholas Oguge3, and Collins Odote4
1 Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
2 International Water Management Institute, Accra, Ghana
3 Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
4 Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
Original language: English
Copyright © 2023 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Rainwater harvesting for irrigation can increase sustainable access to irrigation and improve farmer resilience to climate change, particularly in semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa. However, attempts to increase adoption of rainwater harvesting for irrigation in Kenya have rarely been successful, despite decades of efforts by governments, NGOs, and development practitioners. Most scholars investigating reasons for these low levels of adoption tend to focus on hydro-geological, techno-managerial, or socio-economic factors, and leave out explanations grounded in the analysis of macro-level cultural, political, economic, and environmental dynamics within a specific context. To fill this gap, this article analyzes historical processes of two sites to identify how these dynamics contributed to an enabling environment for rainwater harvesting for irrigation in Kenya. The concept of technological innovation systems, which describes processes central to the emergence, growth, and diffusion of technological innovations, was used as a lens to examine long-term rainwater harvesting for irrigation adoption dynamics in the two sites. The identification of elements «exogenous» to the innovation system demonstrated that ecological, demographic, macroeconomic, political, cultural, and socio-economic elements exerted a major influence on the development of an enabling environment for rainwater harvesting for irrigation. Exogenous elements influenced levels of adoption by shaping the capacity and quality of elements within rainwater harvesting innovation systems, giving rise to systemic problems or opportunities, and influencing the speed of system development.
Author Keywords: Contextual factors, water harvesting, irrigation technologies, innovation adoption, smallholder, agriculture, Kenya.
Radhika Singh1, Thai Thi Minh2, Nicholas Oguge3, and Collins Odote4
1 Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
2 International Water Management Institute, Accra, Ghana
3 Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
4 Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
Original language: English
Copyright © 2023 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Rainwater harvesting for irrigation can increase sustainable access to irrigation and improve farmer resilience to climate change, particularly in semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa. However, attempts to increase adoption of rainwater harvesting for irrigation in Kenya have rarely been successful, despite decades of efforts by governments, NGOs, and development practitioners. Most scholars investigating reasons for these low levels of adoption tend to focus on hydro-geological, techno-managerial, or socio-economic factors, and leave out explanations grounded in the analysis of macro-level cultural, political, economic, and environmental dynamics within a specific context. To fill this gap, this article analyzes historical processes of two sites to identify how these dynamics contributed to an enabling environment for rainwater harvesting for irrigation in Kenya. The concept of technological innovation systems, which describes processes central to the emergence, growth, and diffusion of technological innovations, was used as a lens to examine long-term rainwater harvesting for irrigation adoption dynamics in the two sites. The identification of elements «exogenous» to the innovation system demonstrated that ecological, demographic, macroeconomic, political, cultural, and socio-economic elements exerted a major influence on the development of an enabling environment for rainwater harvesting for irrigation. Exogenous elements influenced levels of adoption by shaping the capacity and quality of elements within rainwater harvesting innovation systems, giving rise to systemic problems or opportunities, and influencing the speed of system development.
Author Keywords: Contextual factors, water harvesting, irrigation technologies, innovation adoption, smallholder, agriculture, Kenya.
How to Cite this Article
Radhika Singh, Thai Thi Minh, Nicholas Oguge, and Collins Odote, “The influence of exogenous elements on technological innovation system development: The case of rainwater harvesting for irrigation in Kenya,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 397–411, August 2023.
